'Made In America' Incident Raises Legal Concerns
by Cherri Gregg
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Hundreds of fans rushed the stage at the Made in America concert Saturday, forcing police to step in to avert tragedy. Now the incident is raising legal questions.
Eyewitness video shows Rapper Jay Electronica on stage at Made in America Saturday afternoon.
"If ya'll not scared," he says, "come up here with me. Let's try to collapse this m*********ing stage!"
The response, according to Philadelphia Police: a thousand fans jumped security barriers and pushed forward to climb on stage. This forced officers to step in and help.
"Luckily there were no injuries or deaths," says Robert Mongeluzzi, an attorney who has been involved in just about every catastrophic injury case in Philadelphia that has resulted from a collapse.
He currently represents two dozen plaintiffs that were injured when a guard rail collapsed at a Snoop Dog and Whiz Khalifa Concert in Camden last month.
He has filed a lawsuit against the rappers and promoter Live Nation for that incident, and argues that performers and promoters have a duty to ensure safety for attendees, staff and first-responders.
"The safety of the patrons at a concert is the joint responsibility of the promoter and the artist," he says, "that means they must have adequate barricades to keep crowds from surging forward."
Mongeluzzi says festival style concerts are extremely dangerous since there are no hard seats or aisles to help control the crowds.
"And when the artist then takes the crowd, which cannot be controlled by aisles, to engage in activities injurious to themselves, they are putting the patrons at risk," says Mongeluzzi.
He claims more than 40 people were injured at the Camden concert, with injuries ranging from multiple concussions to fractured spines and broken bones.
"Artists should not stoke their own egos by encouraging people to rush the stage or rush a railing," says Mongeluzzi, "and when they do, they need to be held responsible for that."
Karen Gauss, an L&I spokesperson, wrote in an email:
"Especially in light of the injuries that occurred recently at the BB&T Arena in Camden, we at L&I were disturbed that an artist at Made in America encouraged the audience to rush the stage. Stages are designed to support very heavy loads, and are inspected by professional engineers to make sure they can, but they are not meant to stand up to that kind of onslaught from a crowd."
Live Nation, promoter for the Made in America concert did not respond to requests for comment.
